Do You Consider Related Posts In RSS Feeds As Clutter?
I have always thought that adding Related Posts in RSS Feeds would be useful for both the blogger as well as for the reader and that everyone thought the same way. But after reading this post on Problogger.net, I found out that Darren considers Related Posts in RSS Feeds as clutter and so do Daniel Scocco of Daily Blog Tips as he comments on Problogger’s latest Speedlinking post:
JohnTP, I am not sure about adding related posts to the feed.
Darren discussed that some time ago. Most RSS readers are loyal readers, and it is very likely that they have already read all the posts on the Related Entries. Plus, if you combine related entries, feed flare, and footer copyright message your feed gonna get cluttered.
I have subscribed to many blogs and I have not yet finished reading all their older posts, so I would find it useful if they included Related Posts in their RSS Feeds so that I could easily find their older and related posts while reading the latest posts on their feed.
Adding Related Posts in RSS Feeds benefits both the blogger and the Reader - the blogger gets to increase pageviews by getting their RSS readers to visit their older posts and the Reader gets to read the older posts that they had not read before. So as a reader, I would be happy if all the blogs I read had Related Posts in their RSS Feeds.
Do you consider Related Posts in RSS Feeds as clutter?
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Posted on February 27th, 2007 | Category: Blogging |
Darren
February 27, 2007 at 5:48 pm
to be fair - my post didn’t say that I considered related posts in feeds to be clutter in all occasions. What I was hoping to emphasize was that there were many things that people seem to be adding to their feeds (related posts being one of them) and that if you add all of them (or a lot of them) your feeds can end up looking cluttered.
I’d personally recommend that bloggers pick just a few extra things to include in their feeds - but not too many.
Related posts can definitely be useful - but if you add a couple of ads, a copyright notice, a ‘digg this’, ‘bookmark this at delicious’ and a link showing comment numbers to every post in your feed (like I see some doing) you might just end up with a cluttered feed.
Ashish Mohta
February 27, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Thats really true.People are already running FAN or Some affiliates along with their copyright thing.And then we need related posts to.Looks like we really need to make sure what we want.
I don’t think its cluttered.It all depends how you arrange it and along what other things you are arranging.Its a show-biz better you present better chances of being it a hit.
Vincent Chow
February 27, 2007 at 7:21 pm
I personally prefer only the post content appear in my feed reader and not others. A few is ok but related post seems to occupies too much space.
Andy C
February 27, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I used ‘related posts’ thinking it would help the stickiness of the site, help new readers and turn one-hit wonders into regular readers. It didn’t so I recently dropped ‘related posts’.
I use a pretty minimalist theme and also have an aversion to sidebar clutter. My current clutter is ‘recent comments’ and subscription/bookmark icons and the latter are just another little experiment.
Ryan
February 27, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Like Darren clarified here I only think it’s clutter if you’ve got related posts along with a million other things like ads, digg this now, del.ico.us, etc.
I’ve only got related posts so it’s not a big deal. If anything I’d rather have related posts than ads or any of the other crap because it helps readers find old posts.
Even dedicated readers haven’t read everything. I think it’s one of the first things you should add, and I love it.
hongkiat
February 27, 2007 at 8:00 pm
JohnTP, I second your stand that related post is useful. Let’s say I subscribe to you feed today, I won’t be going through your previous post, but I’ll start reading from now on. Therefore the related post gives me good idea of what you’ve previously posted.
Mr.Byte
February 27, 2007 at 8:39 pm
I don’t think related posts as clutter, it helps if its a post that I havn’t read before. As a matter of fact, I saw a related post in your feed and I clicked it to read….
Maybe the big footer that i see in many feeds recently is indeed a clutter….Sometimes the same ad in all the posts in a feed is really annoying….
Ashish Mohta
February 27, 2007 at 8:56 pm
@Ryan: Related posts will bring good page hits if you have good amount of readers.They will always like to see whats more on this topic.So if you can arrange them nicely it will work good.
@Vincet: Like blogs feed aren’t cluttered if you have not messed it with ads.They will always like to see something more from the feed instead of going to the blog and search for it.
@Hokgkiat: It depends if you get related post from a blog like problogger.net you cant resist to read those.It depends what information you are providing.Informations are always useful and when you find a good blog you would always like to see “what is in it for me?”
@MrByte: If you are talking about the footer that say copyright and all those stuff, it actually a necessity.I had problem few days back where my feed was getting copied.If i can tell in my feed that you cant steal even readers will like it and if they see it being copied they will surely ping u back.However too much of footer even i don’t like.
Great Comments Guys….Respond Back…
Ashish Mohta
February 27, 2007 at 9:01 pm
@Andy: Recent comments might not be that helpful.Subscribe to comments are more than enough to bring me back to site and respond back if somebody had said anything different and you like to participate.
Subscription bookmarks its experimental and it will depend for every blog.You might have to experiment a little more for getting a good position for them
WildBluff_Matt
February 27, 2007 at 9:44 pm
The related posts can be interesting at times, but I would agree that they appear as clutter. Though with so much content on pages it’s tough to have a layout that doesn’t seem restrictive in some manner.
Zigire
February 27, 2007 at 10:17 pm
I’ve never actually clicked a ‘Related Post’ because I tend to have read all the posts anyway. I read every post, and if I’ve skipped it because it’s “wordpress upgrade” or something similar then I’m not going to be clicking it in ‘Related Posts’
Anyway, getting back to the original question, it doesn’t bother me at all seeing it there, why would it? Excessive advertising, on the other hand…
Lars
February 27, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Imo related posts are a real benefit for the feed, because just like on the blogs, i tend to read/scan the related posts and ocasionly click a headline, if it sounds interesting…
Ashwin
February 28, 2007 at 12:26 am
Frankly speaking it is.
I’m short of words to support my statement but I feel it’s unnecessary.
Enblogopedia
February 28, 2007 at 12:55 am
The answer is….NO!
Malin
February 28, 2007 at 2:36 am
I don’t think it’s clutter. If the post itself is helpful/interesting might want to take another look if the author wrote more on the same topic, therefor, with related posts, I don’t have to spend time to go look for the search form. It saves time…
Maki
February 28, 2007 at 5:05 am
I don’t know about y’all, but I personally click on related posts in feeds very often. It adds value for readers and is a great way to draw readers to your blog.
You know what I think is clutter? Ads. That’s probably one reason why I don’t monetize my feed at the reason.
Everton
February 28, 2007 at 6:37 am
Definitely not clutter. If they are useful on a site then why not in a feed?
I really don’t buy the whole clutter in feed argument. The beauty of feed readers like Google reader is that you can read content quickly and bypass any so-called ‘clutter’ quickly.
Kyle Eslick
February 28, 2007 at 8:39 am
John,
Great post! I have no problem with related posts in feeds (and because of that, I use them for my site’s feed).
I would rather see that than ads, but I don’t mind ads either. Money helps inspire people to put out quality content, so by all means, make money!
Garry
February 28, 2007 at 11:01 am
I think placing useful things can be helpful. Related posts is good and maybe a small ad or two is effective… but people turn to feeds to get away from all the bells and whistles of a site. At least I do. I like the content.. and that is why I use an rss reader.
Alex
March 2, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I think related posts should be implemented as often as possible. They help new readers get more useful information from other posts on the blog, and the old readers should take that into consideration. Maybe instead of just ‘related posts’, it should state ‘related posts for new readers’
Ajay
March 4, 2007 at 4:49 pm
I agree with Darren on his point. A little things are ok, but if you put everything in your feed, you’re going to end up with more extras and less content!